Partisan past , bipartisan future ? April Becker first year as Clark County commissioner

thenevadaindependent.com · Feb 15, 2026 · Collected from GDELT

Full Article

In her first year on the Clark County Commission, the Republican seems to have put aside strong partisan language that defined previous runs for office. In reliably blue Clark County, April Becker is the first Republican on the county commission in more than 15 years. The last, Bruce Woodbury, left office in 2009. Her election might indicate a rightward trend in the county: data shows that Clark County experienced GOP gains in 2024 when Becker was elected, even though it went for President Joe Biden, and two high-profile Republican candidates are jockeying for Justin Jones’ open District F seat this fall. However, Becker — one year after she was sworn into office as the Clark County commissioner for District C — seems unfazed by being the sole Republican on the seven-member panel. “I get along with everybody,” Becker said about her colleagues. “Everybody’s been very welcoming to me.” This nonpartisan tone sounds different than six years ago when Becker was adamantly denying the results of the 2020 election, saying Democrats “cheated—100%” and suing over her own narrow loss, and unequivocally supporting President Donald Trump’s border wall during his first term. Now, she has a harmonious working relationship with her colleagues on the county commission and her social media posts have not touched a national cultural issue apart from Charlie Kirk’s killing, which Becker called a “tragic murder” on Instagram. Though she strives to put partisan politics aside for the betterment of the community, there have been times when he has been the sole dissenting vote — including on the fuel tax index bill and to raise the salary for University Medical Center CEO Mason Van Houweling. The proposal to boost Van Houweling’s salary came as nurses were being laid off. It was also originally on the “consent agenda,” which groups routine, noncontroversial agenda items to be voted on as a bloc. “That kind of set me off,” Becker said. “I don’t think something so big should be on the consent agenda.” Becker, whose district encompasses a northwestern portion of the Las Vegas Valley that includes parts of Lone Mountain, Red Rock and Centennial Hills, routinely collaborates with her fellow commissioners without major disagreements. She said she’s working with Democratic Commissioner Marilyn Kirkpatrick to improve conditions in foster care and build an additional shelter for animals. Woodbury, who served on the commission from 1981 to 2009, said factions were based on personal relationships and rarely fell along partisan lines. “There’s not a Republican or Democrat way to fix a pothole,” he said in an interview with The Indy. Becker’s fellow commissioners, Democrats Tick Segerblom and Jim Gibson, agreed that their work is largely devoid of partisan politics and focused on serving the people of Clark County. “It’s kind of a standard you hold yourself to,” Gibson said. Still, there were some issues that Segerblom thought might vary from district to district. “Ninety-nine percent of what we do, in my perspective, is apolitical,” Segerblom said, though he also said he would prioritize immigration issues for his district, which has a high Latino population. Both said Becker was easy to work with and committed to the job. “She’s kept a pretty low profile. As the new person, you try to listen before speaking out too much or trying to assert control,” Woodbury said. “I think she’s done well in that regard and tried to learn from the other commissioners and the staff.” Voting record Despite her political differences to the rest of the commission, Becker is often in lockstep with the rest of the board. She has only voted “no” six times out of all the agenda items in front of the commission in 2025 and 2026 — last year, the commission voted almost 300 times. In all but one of those votes, she was the lone dissenter. In October, Becker’s dissenting vote on raising the salary for UMC’s CEO, that would have brought his compensation to almost $1 million was praised by nurses and health care workers, who called the raise a “slap in the face” as they were experiencing staffing cuts and shortages. Becker sharply criticized the action, primarily because she felt it was coming out of taxpayer pockets since UMC was dealing with dwindling resources. “I have a huge issue with this level of pay occurring in a public hospital for a county employee,” she said during the commission meeting. Still, Becker’s votes have stirred controversy, including her decision to vote in November last year against continuing the county’s fuel tax indexing policy. The policy, which adjusts the gas tax rate to keep pace with inflation, has been in place since 2016, and some union members said they felt “blindsided” by Becker’s decision to vote against the measure. The Laborers International Union of North America, Local 872, whose members get more work when the county can afford more road construction projects, withdrew its endorsement of Becker the same day. “We put a lot of time and effort into helping her get elected,” Tommy White, secretary-treasurer of the union, said at the time. “And money.” More than anything, White said he’d wished she’d given the union a heads-up on how she would vote. It’s an issue she’s discussed before — in 2022, she campaigned on bringing down high gas prices and placed campaign ads on gas pumps during her unsuccessful bid against Rep. Susie Lee (D-NV). However, during an interview with The Nevada Independent, White alleged that Becker might have been influenced because she received donations from gas companies. Terrible Herbst, strong opponents of fuel tax indexing, gave Becker a one-time $5,000 donation in 2024 as she was running for office. “Tommy knows that’s not true. If nothing else, he knows it because he was the single largest donor to my campaign — and I still voted against what he wanted. I vote based on what’s right, not on who donates,” Becker said via a text statement. “You can raise a whole lot more campaign contributions in Vegas voting for tax increases instead of against them.” Last year, Becker also voted “no” on renewing a contract with Dominion Voter Systems, stating that she was concerned about the fact that the company had a no-bid contract with the county. Most counties in Nevada use the Dominion voting system, according to the Clark County registrar. In May, Becker said she had a “fiduciary duty” to spend money properly during a conversation about Dominion. Though she did not mention Trump, or criticize Dominion during the meeting, Becker has alleged there was fraud in the 2020 election, and Trump has a history with the company: He urged a seizure of Dominion voting machines on the grounds they were “rigging” the election against him — claims that have been proven to be false. When asked if she still believed there was fraud in the 2020 election, Becker did not offer a yes or no answer, but criticized elements of the process. She said in a text message that the COVID-19 pandemic was “used as a pretext” to change election laws. She said signature verification standards used for absentee ballots were “clearly inadequate” and unable to withstand serious scrutiny. She added that more people have been disenfranchised by “so called ‘reforms’” that were “wrong” and need to be “fixed.” None of the changes have led to greater voter turnout, she added. April Becker as seen during a Nevada Republican Men's Club luncheon at the Bali Hai Golf Club Feb. 6, 2018. Daniel Clark/The Nevada Independent A Vegas story Becker was born in 1971 in rural southeastern Texas on the Gulf Coast — “not from Beaumont, but that’s the one you find on the map” — and came to Las Vegas to attend college. “There was no reason to send a girl to college because I was going to get married,” Becker said about her upbringing. “When I say there was very little opportunity for me where I lived, there was very little opportunity.” Becker said she worked to pay for school while raising a daughter with a now ex-husband. She married her current husband, Matt Becker, in 2000 and had two additional children. “I worked as a single mom on the Strip,” Becker said, noting it took her 10 years to finish her undergraduate degree. “Definitely when I was waitressing and bartending, I had no idea I would end up here.” Her Southern upbringing has remained a part of her life and is evident through her style, hospitality and slight twang when she speaks. Her signature “business card” is a chocolate bar with her picture on the wrapper and she mingles comfortably with her constituents at a farmers market she hosts twice a month in her district, often stopping to chat with residents or take a picture. Becker has connections to gaming through her in-laws — her father-in-law built Arizona Charlie’s, a locals casino marketed as a budget-friendly, off-Strip alternative. After declaring bankruptcy, the business was sold, and today the family owns and operates Becker Gaming Group, three restaurants in Las Vegas and real estate company Becker Enterprises. According to her 2026 financial disclosures, the real estate holding firm is formidable, with 59 properties listed under her or a family member’s name. When asked why she got into politics, Becker joked, “I question that. Daily.” Her foray into politics came later in her life — she was almost 40 when she graduated law school — and began with the epiphany that she might be able to write laws better than the contradictory ones she was reading. Becker’s legal career started in the same way as her entrance into politics — frustration with seeing how things were done and wanting to do better. She graduated law school in 2010 and began practicing in business and real estate law at Marquis Aurbach until she started her own firm in 2014. “I would get frustrated with my husband's dealings with attorneys,” Becker said. “So I went to law school and became our attorney.” According to Elevate PAC, a political action committee started by Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N